Health, individuality, and nationalism: Female images in Chinese gynecological medicine advertisements (1900s-1920s)

Ignited by a series of national crises, the newspaper industry flourished in early twentieth-century China. Through popularizing and materializing political and collective imaginations into everyday life, they transformed Chinese people into national citizens. This study examines gynecological medicine advertisements from the 1900s to the 1920s, in which various models of new womanhood were constructed. By focusing on commercial advertisements, this study examines the relationship between women’s health and the state while underlining conflict and tension between national demands and women’s interests. Previous scholars have focused on women’s reproductive duties highlighted in gynecological medical advertisements. Delineating the scope of new roles for women in society, this paper argues that these advertisements try to promote an image of healthy, modern, and patriotic female citizens. The discourse on nationalism, along with the women’s emancipation movement and modernization, extended the role of women beyond reproductive duties: starting with producing healthy children, then expanding to cover new roles in the nuclear family, the consumer economy, and the construction of the modern nation-state.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

E Asian Languages & Cultures

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Li, Yating

Contributors dc:contributor

• Shao, Dan

• Women
• National body
• Nationalism
• Female emancipation
• China
• 1900- 1920s

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Yating Li

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117617

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F117617